molloy



(No Model.)

B. 0 MOLLOY.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

APPARATUS FOR AMALGAMATING GOLD.

Patented May 24, 1887.

g B IIIIII'IIIIIIIIJ (No Model.) A 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

B. o. MOLLOY.

APPARATUS FOR AMALGAMATING GOLD. No. 363,412. Patented May 24, 1887.

NlTFD flrarns ATJENT rricn.

BERNARD CHARLES MOLLOY, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

APPARATUS FOR AMALGAIVIATING GOLD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 363,412, dated May 24, 1887.

Application filed April 27, 1886. Serial No. 200,317. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, BERNARD CHARLES MOLLOY, of 3 Elm Court Temple, in the city of London, England, barrister-at law, member of Parliament, andasubject of the Queen of Great Britain, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Amalgamating Gold and other Precious Metals; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention consists in apparatus which, without the application of any fixed pressure or force, securesan intimate and continued contact between the particles of the crushed ore or compound containing the gold'or other precious metals with the mercury to be used for the purpose of amalgamation.

To facilitate an explanation of the invention, I will describe an apparatus with certain dimensions and of a particular form; but I do not confine myself to any particular form,

size, or shape.

Figure 1 is a plan, the central spindle with its pulley being removed; Fig. 2, a vertical section; Fig.3, a fragmentary detail enlarged; Fig. 4, a fragmentary detail enlarged, showing a removable stirrer; and Fig. 5, an enlarged view of Fig. 2, the crossbar D and pulley being omitted. I

A A A is a circular tray thirty-six inches inside diameter, the sides of which, A A, may be three inches high. This tray or vessel, it is evident, should be capable of containing fluids, and sufficiently solidin its construction.

B B is a disk, say thirty-five inches outside diameter, the sides of which may be two or three inches high, so as to rise higher when in action than the sides A A, or where the overflow is arranged at a particular point, higher than such overflow. It has an opening in the center nine inches in diameter, fitted to which is the hopper B B. A cross-bar, M M, is fitted so as to span this aperture. This cross bar may be of iron, two inches wide, onefourth of an inch thick, and pierced in the center with a square hole, through which the spindle passes freely without in any way supporting the disk, but yet capable of causing the disk to revolve.

the top of A A or other overflow.

S is a spindle which, passing through the crossbar M M, works in the base-socket, as shown. The upper end of the spindle passes through and works in the fixed crossbar D, and is fitted with a crown driving-wheel, E. The object of this spindle arrangement and cross-bar can be obtained by other well-known devices. I

O O are wire-like stirrers, which may be attached to the spindle, and which by agitation merely keep the ore suspended in the water. The tray, which is fitted with the tap G, contains mercury an inch deep, (more or less,) the mercury rising to about one-half an inch from The disk B B floats on the surface of the mercury, so that their respective surfaces are in contact. This floating of the disk, in connection with its capacity to rise and fall frQely enabIes it to follow the irregular motion of the irregular centrifugal Wave, and automatically to adapt itself to any depth of mercury in the outer pan. It will be seen that, due to this loose joint at the aperture in cross-bar H H, the disk can be removed at any time by merely lifting up the spindle.

The outside of the disk may be fitted with wire-like stirrcrs 0 0, (which are not scrapers), adjustable and removable, so as to prevent when necessary the settling of the treated ore.

The spindle may be fitted with stirrers O O to keep the ore from settling in the hopper B B. The lower end of the hopper is cutaway, sloping outward to the mercury, as shown at as. (See Fig. 3.)

WVhen the apparatus is in action, the ore,or ore and water, are conducted by any suitable means into the hopper and the supply prop- 'erly regulated. The motion given to the pulley E, acting upon the spindle, causes the disk to revolve. The revolution of the disk may be obtained by other suitable and convenient means. The number of revolutions may be twenty (more or less) to the minute. As the disk revolves the ore floats under the bevel x, and then, with the centrifugal wave, creeps under the disk in a thin layer, and then, by the centrifugal action, is worked outward on the surface of the mercury, while the circular action of the disk drags it laterally, so that the ore is worked spirally outward, rolling upon the surface of the mercury till it reaches the uncovered mercury in the open space between the outside of the disk and the inside of the tray. Here the wet ore is prevented from settling or clogging, the ore being held in suspension in the water by the action of the outside stirrers, 0. The slimes thus kept in a state of agitation by the stirrers rise till they overflow and pass away, free from any particles of mercury, because, due to the agitation of the slimes, the specific gravity of the mercury is free to carry any such particles down to the body of the mercury in the tray. This overflow may be all around or only at a given point, as may be found convenient. The ore will thus by the action of the disk have been rolled on the surface of the mercury from ten to fifteen seconds.

' The speed of the revolutionsand the length of contact may be regulated in accordance with the character of the ore.

The parts A A" A and B B may be constructed of wood,oebonite, slate, iron, or other suitable material.

I am aware that various applications and combinations of a disk or distributer with a central hopper or cylinder fitted with scrapers, and having a mercury-containing vessel,

have been previously designed; but my meth 0d of application and combination is for a disk with ashallow hopper about three inches high, so that it may receive only a comparatively thin layer of ore and water-say from one and one-half to-two inches deep-and of such comparatively small bulk and height as not to be heavy enough to sink into, but resting and floating upon, the surface of the mercury exposed beneath the hopper, this latter (the hopper) having its inner edges beveled outward, forming an angle with the surface of the mercury or wedged-shaped receptacle into which the floating ore flows, and creeps under the disk by force only of the centrifugal wave caused by the revolutions of the disk, while the disk itself is in no way fixed or supported 5 suspended in the water and attached to thesides of the periphery of the disk, so that the I use no scrapers,'but

ore thus kept suspended in the water in the annular channel flows away freely and naturally without scraping or other force or pressure, and so avoids all banking up of the ore and all danger of carrying over any mercury.

One of my main objects is to, avail all through of the floating power of the mercury, both for the diskand for theore, and to avoid all force, pressure, and unnecessary friction whatever, and to secure the minimum of power for working wit-h the minimum of disturbance of the mercury.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is In combination with the mercury-pan, a disk having means for rotating the same, and having a shallow hopper beveled at its lower -edge and adapted to float on the mercury in the pan, a spindle passing freely through a cross-bar,and which permits'the free rise and A fall of the disk. upon the surface of the mercury, and stirrers o'r agitators attached to the periphery of the disk, all as set forth.

In testimony whereof I, the said BERNARD CHARLES MoLLoY, have hereunto set my hand this 15th day of April, 1886.

' BERNARD CHARLES MOLLOY;

I Vitnesses:

ALFR D GEORGE BRooKs, JoHN GooDELs. 

